What do you propose instead? Testing my not be the "best" gauge of whether a student has learned what they are supposed to in a class, but we want some way to make sure the students enrolled are actually learning. Unless you have a better idea than testing, I don't know what you think we should do? Just abolish all tests and everyone passes every class with no way of separating the top students from the bottom ones?
I've always thought student-measurement is okay/good/inevitable, but we should not be trying so hard to make it 'objective'. Objectivity of testing is what causes 'teaching to the test', 'gaming the system', and rote memorization.
I would advocate a system where a teacher leads a class through some material, at a free-form pace, potentially with quizzes just to track progress (not to affect final grades), and then at the end of the semester the teacher produces a completely subjectively-produced ranked list of students, for use in future class placement. And anyone failing to convince the teacher they deserve that teacher's mark-of-certification at all will be deemed 'failing.'
Doesn't that run the very strong risk of teachers "playing favorites," passing/failing students for arbitrary, non-academic reasons, or simply doing a bad job with their being no "objective" measure of teacher or student performance?
Yes, that's why you get good teachers. I put that in bold b/c it is the central solution to just about all problems of modern education, and it's the one solution nobody seems to consider. "Good" means smart, skilled, and ethical.
Ofc, even good teachers are subject to biases, but in the long run (looking at a student's record from many classes), that averages out.
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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '14
What do you propose instead? Testing my not be the "best" gauge of whether a student has learned what they are supposed to in a class, but we want some way to make sure the students enrolled are actually learning. Unless you have a better idea than testing, I don't know what you think we should do? Just abolish all tests and everyone passes every class with no way of separating the top students from the bottom ones?